Here is a brief description of "team racing" to sailors and parents not very familiar with it. While "fleet racing" involves a group of teams sending one boat to compete against many other teams in two divisions, team racing pits 3 boats from one team against 3 boats from another team in separate races. After sailing against one team, a team will then have more matches against other teams until they have raced all entered in the event. So, if 8 teams attend, each team will sail 7 different races and the total number of races to complete the competition will be 28. Since there are so many races to complete, team racing events are normally sailed on what is called a digital "N" course with the start at the bottom left and the finish at the top right. This allows starting races right after each other so they can be completed quickly.
When a skipper and crew sail their 420 with 2 other boats from their team against another team of 3 boats, they can do blocking and wind-stealing maneuvers that can not be done in fleet racing. The goal of each team is to finish the race with places that add up to 10 or less points. This means that the other team will lose because they have 11 or more points. 10 therefore is the magic number. For instance, 1st, 3rd, and 6th add up to 10 points and is one of the winning combinations. Team racing involves a lot of different strategies, tactics, techniques,inter-squad communications, and rules that are a lot of fun and turn sailing into a team sport like basketball or football. One important rule is that a 360 (not 720) degree turn is all that is needed to cover a penalty.
The minimum number of sailors needed to form a team racing team is 3 skippers and 3 crew.
